So I was watching Hidamari Sketch x365 (the second season of Hidamari Sketch), and on the episode on the second disc. The principal was angrily pursuing one of the teachers because she hadn't watered the morning glories as she had said she would. And then... it made a brief cut to an anthropomorphic aubergine standing on a roof. Now, in this case, it wasn't the new year; in fact, the date it gave was July 30. So I don't know. But normal eggplants have come up in the manga before as art models (and later, the basis for all three of the set lunches that day), and may yet in later episodes.